Red Squirrels at Formby

[Boddie]

Another top day out was had today by myself with Steve (Fourwings) Mark (MTR) and Nikon Nige.

We started at Tescos, in Stoke, for our usual fry up, then proceeded to Formby for the squirrels. Not so many as last time I visited and many of them did not look to be in the best of condition. I am pretty sure that we have some good shots on the way however.

We then went on to some RSPB venue north of Formby. I forget the name - not such a bad thing as it was poor, so I wont dwell on it.

Martin Mere was our final destination. A fantastic reserve with great facilities and loads to see with plenty of opportunities for photography. Mark alone took some 700 odd shots so is bound to upload some great images.

I will let them fill you in further.

[eeyore]

sounds like a good day out mate

was that rspb site the same one we went to when we were up their before - the marshy wasteland with hardly any birds and no facilities to speak of beyond a carpark

[Oscar2006]

Glad I stayed at home then!

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by eeyore

sounds like a good day out mate

was that rspb site the same one we went to when we were up their before - the marshy wasteland with hardly any birds and no facilities to speak of beyond a carpark

Oh yes

[Boddie]

Sorry, I misled you. Mark took 1,242 shots

[almostnormal]

so....i'm a little confused, which rspb venue? i thought i'd been to all our reserves up this way?

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by almostnormal

so....i'm a little confused, which rspb venue? i thought i'd been to all our reserves up this way?

I think it was Marshside

[eeyore]

I think its marshside - dont get me wrong i'm sure that the habitat is very valuable but as a visitor experience it is a dead loss - basically there is a carpark near the sea wall and thats it - no hides , no interpretation , no paths , no nuthin

edit : great minds eh mate

[Boddie]

I did get this rather nice shot of a piece of work

Andrew Hunter Photography: Showcased: Wrong Un

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by eeyore

I think its marshside - dont get me wrong i'm sure that the habitat is very valuable but as a visitor experience it is a dead loss - basically there is a carpark near the sea wall and thats it - no hides , no interpretation , no paths , no nuthin

edit : great minds eh mate

Yep, it is poor

[almostnormal]

are you sure you were at marshside?? last time i was there there was a main hide with views over the wader habitat (lots of lovely wet grassland stuffed full of avocets, lapwing and wigeon at the mo) and two viewing screens to get a better view of the lovely baby waders later in the season.

are you sure you're not disparaging some other place and mistaking it for marshside??

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by almostnormal

are you sure you were at marshside?? last time i was there there was a main hide with views over the wader habitat (lots of lovely wet grassland stuffed full of avocets, lapwing and wigeon at the mo) and two viewing screens to get a better view of the lovely baby waders later in the season.

are you sure you're not disparaging some other place and mistaking it for marshside??

There was a couple of hides. It was Marshside, definitely. The hides are badly positioned for the light

[eeyore]

if it is the same place then the problem is bad interpretation / signage because from the carpark we stopped at back in november it wasnt clear that there was anything on site at all

[almostnormal]

oh dear. i think there are some improvements planned in the future, with some paths and another hide. maybe they'll work better!

just in case you're interested they'll be some new habitat going in at hesketh outmarsh, with sea defence breaches going in (hopefully) next year. it's an EA compensation habitat for some sea defence work they did in morecambe bay. hopefully it'll provide some excellent inter-tidal habitat in the next few years!

[Boddie]

It might be a good reserve but not just what we had expected and poor for what we wanted

[almostnormal]

what were you after? i might be able to dig out some definite inside info on the best spots for....?

[Boddie]

We were looking for images, and that was not happening.

[eeyore]

i think we had expected a site more like titchwell , minsmere, etc with a decent array of hides , well laid out paths, and decent signage on how to find stuff - I work in conservation too so i do appreciate that the raspberries dont have the money to provide that at evrry site.

I'm sure marshside is a valuable habitat and potentially good for dedicated birders , however from a photography point of view i'm afraid that it doesnt do it for me

my top tip for future excursions is to skip marshside and go to leighton moss instead

[almostnormal]

hi

you might be better trying out a couple of other reserves for images themselves.....if you seriously want to get close to good wader habitat there are a couple of sites i can point you to. the first is inner-marsh farm on the dee. its always stuffed with waders and there's fairly good access to the reserve, and the marsh around it usually has a big population of birdies, although as a non photographer i'm not sure about light and stuff!

the other place you could try (if you haven't already) is the non leighton moss bit of leighton moss. there's two hides up on the saltmarsh area which usually have a mass of birds, including the avocets, around them.

if you really want to get a bit closer to upland waders there are some sites that aren't reserves, but potentially would get you excellent shots of breeding dotteral, and some truly wicked views of redshank. top of pendle hill in bowland is best for dotteral, not to mention its a nice bit of scenery. if you're lucky, there's also ring ouzel and grouse around in a few bits of the bowland fells.

sarah

[mrs fish]

Originally Posted by Boddie

I did get this rather nice shot of a piece of work

Andrew Hunter Photography: Showcased: Wrong Un

That is a smart photo

[Boddie]

Oooph. Get your coat Mark

[eeyore]

Its okay don corleone i'll get de money and de intwest I promise - theres no need to send your enforcer round

[Fourwings]

It was yet another classic day out for "the gang", the only downside being that our good pal Oscar couldn't make it on this occasion.

Formby was great fun, perhaps a few more Red Squirrels would have been nice but there were enough for us all to leave with plenty of good images after a couple of hours.

Marshside was just not right for what we wanted to do, there seemed plenty of birds about but all the hides/screens faced into the sun so were practically useless for photography purposes.

Martin Mere was excellent, after the initial shock of having to pay over 7 notes just to get in!!, it soon became obvious that there were endless excellent close views of native British Wildfowl, hence some extremely nice photos were taken.
The weather was perfect and we spent the remainder of the day there wandering around taking photos and generally having a good time.
Apart from taking wildfowl images I also took images of a couple of dodgey characters.

This chap (MTR) playing with anothers photographers "Sigmonster" lens, an awesome bit of kit, 200 - 800mm, but you need some serious muscle or a sherpa to carry it!


And this chap who seemed to be pointing to a flying duck whilst taking a photo in front of him,
Guess who??

[eeyore]

he's telling you that he thinks you're number 1

[Fourwings]